Posts this week have fallen off due to paper writing, intense sightseeing at St. Paul's and the National Theater, and a frantic bit of midterm break planning, but Mollie, Jenny and I have somewhat successfully settled in at our hostel in the heart of Brussels, the capital of Belgium and center of the EU. Right now, we're hanging in the lounge area of hostel, exhausted from walking about and mesmerized by the creepy, possibly nude shadow dancers on the television (think the iPod commercials but with topless sillouettes).
While I knew that travelling in a country where the official language is Dutch would be difficult, I was absolutely unprepared for the Brussels MIDI train station. With tram ticket machines that would only take coins and EU credit cards, and the ATM per capita ratio at -4, we were agitated to say the least. To make matters even more outrageous, we couldn't find anyone who seemed to know how to navigate the complex. There was a really foxy guy from Nottingham, but Mollie shook him off before we learned his name. Two hours later, we finally discover a ticket booth with humans in charge and jump on the tram.
For this reason, and more credit card/ATM issues checking in, we don't actually hit the town until about 5:30 but we get to see a great deal of it, including the entire north end (and an unfortunate cross through the red light district) and part of the city center. There, we ate dinner in Grand Place, grabbed wafels, and attempted to interpret the enigmatic Mannekin Pis fountain - details/pictures next week. I'm looking forward to a more fun weekend and can't wait to tell you all about it back in London. All my love!
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